I could always disappear into live jazz. Live jazz has been a wonderful addiction that I have never been able to shake. Players with mystical skills talked to me with sounds that they had just thought of but that carried a lifetime of wisdom. It was way too complex for me to unwind., Those who played it were miracle makers. It showed up in the pictures I took. We are now taking a forced break from live music,  I remain in awe of those who can play it and those who bring it to

This coming week trumpeter Walt Szymanski will be playing at the Dirty Dog Jazz Café. Walt is exactly like what  a Walt Szymanski should be like. He is an affable, easy going guy from Detroit and is one heck of a horn player. He has a typical Detroit jazz artist’s bio. It is long and full of famous associates, impressive gigs and descriptions of the time he spent in NYC. Walt has gotten around and is now living in a suburb of Quito, Ecuador where he teaches at a university. 

Every year I get away from home for a few weeks. I have found a place or two where I can take some time to look around at my surroundings. This is different from traveling and is helpful in the creative process. All artists have a unique process that they are comfortable with. When they write their kid a letter or create their life defining masterpiece they begin by realizing that they have something to say. How they get to the finished letter or final version of their master

Just over a week ago Willie Jones passed a note to a visiting pianist from New York, Emmet Cohen. Emmet then informed a sold out audience at the Dirty Dog that George “Sax” Benson had died. Emmet knows a lot about jazz and has always been drawn to Detroit’s jazz, yet when I asked him about George, he told me that he didn’t know either George or his music. He did know that the loss of any Detroit jazz artist is a major loss for jazz. This news had the same effect on me as list

Photo from The Japan Times JAZZ  JOURNALIST KYOSHI KOYAMA This week I read of the passing of Kiyoshi Koyama. Kiyoshi Koyama isn’t a name that will jump off the page in our country. In Japan he was regarded as the nation’s preeminent jazz journalist. In the U.S. he was a friend to a lot of our best jazz musicians. He had a passion for jazz, and he filled his life with a search to find all he could about the artists who have created music out of perseverance, grit, hard work an

RANDY NAPOLEON VERSUS THE POLAR VORTEX Something called the polar vortex sent dangerously cold weather into the north central states last week. Flesh left exposed to the cold wind for any time was susceptible to frostbite. We were warned to stay put and go outside only if necessary. Many Detroiters stayed at home exposing themselves to cable TV showing us endless explanations of the polar vortex and pictures of icy empty city streets. Living in the Northern Hemisphere we surv

THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS WEEK As the holidays loom and undone tasks build. it would be easy to slip into grumpiness. We will have to make space and plan to feed a lot of our family again after having it all to ourselves, or try and find a convenient affordable airfare and get out of town. We are at a time of year when things pile up, and we are up against a very real deadline of December 25. This is a difficult period with its unspoken demands that this coming holiday season

DETROIT JAZZ, THE BOOK One of Detroit’s greatest assets is her first class hard working musicians. Jazz drifted up the Mississippi River from New Orleans through St Louis and Chicago and spread to the bustling city of Detroit. The music found fertile ground and the city has played a key role in the development of the music from the early 30s until today. A tradition of discipline, good mentoring and living the stories has made Detroit the schoolhouse for jazz. Through good ti

GETTING ALONG TOGETHER IN NOVEMBER On these cold November evenings the Dirty Dog must assemble a staff that has rid themselves of any winter blahs. These are the folks who will welcome the guests into  a serene and uplifting experience. This process happens long before any patrons show up. What I have observed is that the management sets the tone, Their good natured work ethic is contagious. I have watched the Dirty Dog Jazz Café staff prepare for an evening’s upbeat event. T

FRIENDS The Charles Boles Quartet is a band that has a healthy accumulation of experiences and stories from life and from being jazz musicians. All the members have the perspectives of jazz where one learns from each other’s experiences and enjoy sharing their stories. These are jazz brothers, pals, amigos, cronies and certainly friends. Charles seems to go through life as an active friend collector. Bassist John Dana always arrived on time every Tuesday for the band’s weekly

THIS WEEK THE DIRTY DOG JAZZ CAFÉ IS CLOSED AND MOVING TO BE PART OF DETROIT’S GREAT JAZZ FESTIVAL Why would the smart gang at the Dirty Dog think of moving the operation? The answer is: they are going to take the operation to  where the best jazz in town will be playing. The Dog is setting up its operation in downtown Detroit right in the middle of the Detroit Jazz Festival. Maybe, they are just pretty smart. THE GOOD NEWS IS THE DOG IS ONLY CLOSED FOR ONE WEEK, AUGUST 28 –

Charles Boles A week ago I wrote a blog about my memories of jazz. I included a story that the great  Detroit jazz pianist Charles Boles passed on to me that has made me chuckle every time I think of it. You never know where inspiration will come from. One of the advantages of getting a chance to hang out with jazz musicians is to hear them tell stories of how they first heard the music. As a child Charles Boles was introduced to jazz by a pianist in an apartment above his ro

As we go through life we all have memories of both delicious and dreadful moments. We have fond thoughts when we hear the music that was playing when you first danced with that amazing but unapproachable girl. Then we are reminded of the kick that knocked a tooth out and the taste of eating Spam day after day during the war. I can’t get rid of the memory of the smell when the van engine gave out at the most remote place on our family vacation. We live our lives surrounded by

RESILIENCE is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. Resilient is a word that is often used to describe Detroit. Maybe Detroit is more of a slow moving slogger than a city that can snap back quickly. Recovery in Detroit has usually come from  hard work and perseverance. Toughness we have. Detroit’s resilience can be seen in its music and those who play and support the music. Hard work and perseverance are in the city of Detroit and its music’s DNA. It i

THE FINAL STAGE OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS:  SHARING YOUR ART Once an artist has put his final touches on a piece of art he is faced with a choice, to add it to the pile in the basement or offer it up as an important piece of art. Marketing doesn’t always come naturally for a creative artist. It is easier to give it away and let someone else decide the fate of one’s art. Certainly there are those who can go deep into the creative process completely immersed in their art and emer

Separating the good stuff from the stuff that isn’t needed is the hardest task in the creative process, but editing makes things better. Therefore I will try to make this a concise and brief blog. Ernest Hemingway said “If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them.” GREENING Greening is

THE CREATIVE PROCESS Jazz musicians, painters, writers and all artists have their own approach to creating. Last week I described what my version of the creative process should look like. It starts with getting away from your comfort zone, getting up from the couch and entering the first stage of exploring. Then comes the important part of the process, taking careful note of the things around you, looking, listening and exploring. We have just returned from a road trip which

For a very long time I have been fascinated by the ability of jazz musicians to create new music on the fly and make it look easy. We all watch as another guy steps up and adds to the first guy’s thoughts. Soon they are joined by others who move the music in a new direction.  Each time I hear Happy Birthday played at the Dirty Dog it is in a new form. No one plays it straight. Every time I have heard it played it is approached like we have never heard it before. Bands that pl

Dave Bennett will bring his band to The Dirty Dog this week. Before the lights are turned down and the music begins, the Dirty Dog Jazz Café is a beehive of activity. Unseen by those who are settling in at their tables in anticipation of an evening of jazz,food and drink, the restaurant’s back hallway is busy acting as an efficient conduit for all the good things that the guests will be experienced that night. The amazing thing is that it exists at all. When the Dirty Dog Jaz

ARTS PROGRAMS TO THE RESCUE We can be deeply but quietly affected by passion, or get carried away. but it sure helps to have a little in your life. If you look around and see a lot of  people going place to place in your neighborhood without smiles on their faces, you probably haven’t had a good arts program in your schools for a while. To test this, go to a place where folks live in a environment where art and good design is all around them. It turns out that being surrounde